Stages Of A Cyber-Attack

Cyber-attacks are increasing at a soaring rate. As per a report by Juniper Research, the average cost of data breach will exceed $150 million by 2020. Also, it is projected that cybercrimes will cost businesses over $2 trillion by 2019. The figures are alarming, and the businesses need to do something to prevent falling prey to a cyber-attack.

No wonder, better security and anti-virus systems are being designed but even the cyber-attacks are getting sophisticated & more complex with each passing day. Cyber criminals are finding one way or the other to infiltrate into the systems and get hold of private & confidential data.

In order to avoid falling prey to a cyber-attack, it is important to understand the life cycle of an attack. Following are the stages of a cyber-attack.

Step 1: Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is often used in military and refers to the process of conducting a planned observation on the target area. Thus, before an attack is launched, cyber criminals tend to identify their target victim & explore the possible ways to exploit them. They gather sufficient information about the victim through various open sources such as business website, social media handles, etc.

Step 2: Scanning
Attackers often try to find a weak link which can act as an entry point. Once identified they infiltrate and tend to spread the malware throughout the system.

Step 3: Access
After identifying the vulnerability point in the target network, the next step in the process is to gain access to the system. Hackers plan the modus operandi of gaining the access and once successful they take over the network and exploit it.

Step 4: Exfiltration
When they have gained access to the system they are free to move around the network. They use this opportunity to gather the organization’s private & confidential information. They might also change or erase files for their benefit.

Step 5: Sustainment
After gaining an unrestricted access throughout the target network, they now tend to sustain in it quietly to avoid being caught before they have hands on the organization’s confidential information. They disguise their presence to maintain access so that there is no dependence on a single access point. This is done so that cyber attackers can come and go as per their choice.

Step 6: Assault
This is that stage of the attack when things get really nasty. It is generally too late for the victim organization to defend itself as the cyber criminals by this stage have taken full control of the network.

In order to mitigate a cyber-attack it is important to be able to control privileged access. Also make sure that you remove all the weak links and educate your employees to identify such attacks.

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Abdul Subhani

I am the President & CEO of
Centex Technologies Microsoft Small Business Specialist, Certified E-Commerce Consultant, Certified Ethical Hacker, Certified Fraud Examiner, Virtual Instructor and an IT Consultant/Speaker on IT Security, Networking, Small Business Architect, & SEO Internet Marketing.

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